Interesting..........just catching up on the Pickering Town Centre redevelopment thread and found this article posted awhile back by @Coolstar

In re-reading, I found the genesis of the MZO....

www.durhamregion.com

Pickering City Centre development on hold, but still a go

Due to challenges stemming from COVID-19, the development of the Pickering City Centre is on pause.
www.durhamregion.com www.durhamregion.com

From said article:

The city recently sent a letter along with Durham Live developer Triple Group of Companies to the Province of Ontario, requesting zoning restrictions be lifted through a Minister's Zoning Order (MZO) so the rest of construction can move forward.
The Durham Live zoning bylaw contains a holding which requires a new Highway 401 interchange before it can be lifted. At a recent special council meeting, a letter to council from Durham Live representative Don Given said the holding needs to be lifted for large users beyond the casino resort and film studio to proceed.
 
This is nothing but an abuse/misuse of power. Something that was supposed to be used in the understanding of rare circumstances, is now being wielded with abandon whenever the procedures of municipalities get in the way and what not. It's almost if Dougie and his cronies found the keys to the provincial gun cabinet... /bleh
 
UtakataNoAnnex said:
This is nothing but an abuse/misuse of power. Something that was supposed to be used in the understanding of rare circumstances, is now being wielded with abandon whenever the procedures of municipalities get in the way and what not. It's almost if Dougie and his cronies found the keys to the provincial gun cabinet... /bleh
Click to expand...

This is my fear Ford and company won't have to deal with municipalities and just do as they please.
 
Found these on Malone Given Parsons website.. seems to more accurately show what the Casino is actually going to look like. Predictably quite tuned down from the initial renderings. I'm not sure why the proponents are still using the old rendering which is nothing like what is actually getting built in their marketing materials.

Durham Live 2.jpg
Durham Live.jpeg


And the latest site plan, found in the planning justification report submitted to the City of Pickering in March 2020 (Red annotations my own to make it clearer as the text is very difficult to read).

The Mall looks similar to the Halton and Niagara Outlet Malls, and I know that landlord had an application in Bowmanville for another Outlet Mall. I wonder if they have moved their plans here now.

I believe the warehousing and logistics spaces will be on the west side of Sqiures Beach Road, which is where the wetlands will be destroyed. This site plan shows the retention of the natural heritage features on this side of Squires Beach Road.

Durham Live Site Plan ANNOTATED.png
 
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This kind of quality, attention to detail; and delivery on hype clearly merits an MZO.

Especially if one can destroy the environment at the same time.

😒
 
Northern Light said:
View attachment 280344

This kind of quality, attention to detail; and delivery on hype clearly merits an MZO.

Especially if one can destroy the environment at the same time.

😒
Click to expand...
To be clear, the casino was approved through traditional means and is scheduled to open in April. It's almost completed.

The MZO permits the Studio uses in the site plan above and the warehousing uses. The first phase of the development, including the mall, arena, waterpark, and casino, was zoning approved a while ago.

Not that it makes it any better.
 
innsertnamehere said:
To be clear, the casino was approved through traditional means and is scheduled to open in April. It's almost completed.

The MZO permits the Studio uses in the site plan above and the warehousing uses. The first phase of the development, including the mall, arena, waterpark, and casino, was zoning approved a while ago.

Not that it makes it any better.
Click to expand...

Yah, I was just pointing out that while brilliant architecture and willingness/ability to deliver as promised/hyped would in no way offset losing a provincially significant wetland; at least one might
understand the enthusiasm for the proposal.

Based on what's being delivered, my expectations have sunk to new lows.
 
Northern Light said:
Yah, I was just pointing out that while brilliant architecture and willingness/ability to deliver as promised/hyped would in no way offset losing a provincially significant wetland; at least one might
understand the enthusiasm for the proposal.

Based on what's being delivered, my expectations have sunk to new lows.
Click to expand...
Yup. The wetland loss specifically is for new warehousing space. Hardly anything to get excited about.
 
innsertnamehere said:
Yup. The wetland loss specifically is for new warehousing space. Hardly anything to get excited about.
Click to expand...
There is, considering they're replacing a wetland with a warehouse. That is, something we'll never get back being replaced with something that's likely not needed. And excited as in, something we should really be pissed off.be about. /bleh again
 
https://www.thestar.com/news/gta/20...A515217CB88E9FFEDC926E&utm_campaign=tmh_35367

Greenbelt adviser quits over fast-tracking of Durham wetlands development by Doug Ford’s government
By Noor Javed Staff Reporter
Wed., Nov. 4, 2020

Snippets:
A member of Doug Ford’s Greenbelt Council, mandated to offer government officials guidance on the protected environmental lands, has resigned over the province’s decision to issue a ministerial zoning order for a development that will destroy a provincially significant wetland in Pickering.

Linda Pim, an environmental biologist and planner who was appointed to sit on the advisory committee in 2018, said she has been concerned with the increasing use of ministerial zoning orders, or MZOs, by the government over the past two years.

…

Pim added that Clark’s “decision on Durham Live that runs totally counter to decades-long provincial policy mandating complete protection of PSWs.”

When contacted, Pim said the letter spoke for itself but she felt like she “had to take a stand.”
 
I think Tr*mp should be a verb also (if it isn't already). As in, the wetland in question here is getting Tr*mped...
 
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